Kona surprise

Found this from Kona.

1992
The Future Shock fork is introduced, a leading-link design by Joe Murray. In a very amicable agreement with Specialized, the name is changed to Z-Link. The fork is a total flop, is never safe to ride, and all stock is dumped into the Straight of San Juan de Fuca.

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http://www.konaworld.com/about.cfm[/quote]

My set back in 2007.

I sold them not long after. I have seen a handful of Ti P2's over the years since, but only one other example of this fork for sale.

Grockel":363gsiw9 said:

Found this from Kona.

1992
The Future Shock fork is introduced, a leading-link design by Joe Murray. In a very amicable agreement with Specialized, the name is changed to Z-Link. The fork is a total flop, is never safe to ride, and all stock is dumped into the Straight of San Juan de Fuca.

Click to expand...

http://www.konaworld.com/about.cfm

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So what failed? The links? The shock?

Grockel":20usfv3h said:

Found this from Kona.

1992
The Future Shock fork is introduced, a leading-link design by Joe Murray. In a very amicable agreement with Specialized, the name is changed to Z-Link. The fork is a total flop, is never safe to ride, and all stock is dumped into the Straight of San Juan de Fuca.
http://www.konaworld.com/about.cfm

Click to expand...

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Note that by no means all of what appears in that timeline is accurate, nor even serious. Nor can they spell the word Strait.

Anthony":36j5r000 said:

Grockel":36j5r000 said:

Found this from Kona.

1992
The Future Shock fork is introduced, a leading-link design by Joe Murray. In a very amicable agreement with Specialized, the name is changed to Z-Link. The fork is a total flop, is never safe to ride, and all stock is dumped into the Straight of San Juan de Fuca.
http://www.konaworld.com/about.cfm

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Note that by no means all of what appears in that timeline is accurate, nor even serious. Nor can they spell the word Strait.

Click to expand...

I guessed the Chucking in the sea was a joke. The fork though was a total flop and from what I Remember from articles back in the time it was thought of as rather dodgy at the best of times. As I believe it was Joe Murrays baby and he left at the back of 92 after this his absence meant no one else was willing to carry on with development of it.

eshew":2ozyn531 said:

Certainly more rare than a ti P2 in my honest yet ignorant opinion.

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The rarest of the rarest : a titanium Z-link fork




… Sorry, it's a joke

But I agree, they're quite rare.

How it works ? I've got quite the same system suspension fork (the ATZ) but the elastomers don't work directly but through a lever. So it's quite smooth.

Looking at the design its basically 2 P2's bolted together, at the bottom with a little alloy link, at the top with a bracket and a suspension unit. The "fork" bits themselves are probably unlikely to fail. I would guess if there were to be any problems it would be in that little link near the dropouts or in that bracket at the top. The bottom link could be remade quite easily with a stronger version if you have someone with the right CNC skills and the top bracket could be remade as well.

I would LOVE a pair, I think they are the best looking boingy fork ever.